Feathers of Cedar
by galangalang2
Summary: This is post 7x20. Bonnie awakens to a reunion with old family, tension between her and Damon still, and a feeling deep within that she's not altogether the same. What is quaking within Bonnie?
1. Chapter 1

**This is post 7x20 of TVD**

Awaking was… unlike any other time she had before. She'd died and came back so many times, this was like clockwork. Sit up. Eyes wide. Heavy breaths. Hand on chest. Asking yourself: am I alive?

 _I'm alive._ Bonnie thinks, sitting on the sofa in the Salvatore living room. The only thing she could hear is the crackle in the fireplace. She dared not look up.

What could she had went through to be in this daze, to be caught between life and death, and not know what's real. Her eyes avert to a dark, distant face lit by the red flames of a fireplace.

"Bonnie, listen…" Damon began. She watched him, caution in his gait, as he walked over to her. His gesturing hands looked more like a way to keep her afar. Bonnie was tense.

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked. She didn't have a clue. Caroline, Enzo, Alaric, and Matt stood around her like strangers. Caroline reached for her, but Bonnie felt the instinct to pull away. Enzo did the same, attempting to caress her burning cheeks, but Bonnie's face moved without hesitation. They were beginning to think she was unhinged. Alaric cut his eyes to Damon in a moment signaling that maybe he could do something. While Damon was daring, he was also smart. And if what Rayna said was true, he didn't want to die. He did not want to die knowing that Bonnie would be like this.

Matt's face crumbled, as if about to cry, but it was more a culmination of the situation. It was tiring him out. He had become the one thing that would instill purpose into his life. He had blossomed into a spirit of servitude, a well of a watchman. A cop. Yet, still, his efforts to protect the ones he loved would still come at a cost.

A knock comes at the door and Matt moves to get it. One sharp-eyed, brown skinned man leaned up against the door. Matt's face coiled into confusion. His eyes traced the man's wiry, stretched arms that were hanging onto the top of the archway.

"Who are you?" Matt asks. He was more than mean about it, grilling the poor man with his blue eyes. The man appeared amused by this, openly displaying a smile that highlighted his bun-like cheekbones. Damon's head turns in curiosity. Him and Bonnie lock eyes in a moment of ripe disparity. Bonnie shook head her knowing exactly what he's thinking, which causes Damon to blink into ignorance. Not an ignorance that Enzo seems to have following him like a shadow, an ignorance characterized by bliss. But an ignorance so tumultuously gray, and so varied, that the thought of Bonnie being, well, Bonnie, crossed his mind.

"I said, who are you?" Matt asks again. The man looks past Matt, seeing only a minor problem compared to the rest behind him.

"Bonnie," The man said. Deep, resonating voice carried by a lightness flowed through to Bonnie. She marched past Damon, Caroline, Enzo, and Alaric. Her small body being moved by an energy within her. And the closer she got, the stronger she felt.

Bonnie lightly patted Matt on the shoulder, and he steps out of the way. Just as he steps away, just as Damon approaches Bonnie's left side, Bonnie and the man make eye contact.

"I'm your cousin, Bonnie," the man says. Then, Bonnie's feet shuffle a bit. She looks down, then back at Damon. Damon was staring the man down, then he looks back at her.

"Is he?" Damon asks.

"You know I don't freaking know—"

The man explains his name is Abel Bennett. And with him is his girlfriend, Lola.

Bonnie's face falls through joy to bliss to anger to frustration. It reflects fear. It reflects anxiety. And all through this, she feels comfort. A deep sigh leaves her mouth and she takes a step back.

Damon was feeling an aching of mixed emotions too. He knows how much Bonnie cares about family. Family is a person's crutch sometimes. Bonnie is his, and if Bonnie is his, and these people are really who they say they are, then they're apart of his life now.

Bonnie walks away from Damon as a reminder. As Bonnie invites the two of them in, Damon stares at her, watching her walk away into the kitchen. Watching her ignore whatever is happening to her, for the hope of something good before she… well, whatever it is that Rayna has done. And he also watches her, with strained, oceanic orbs, walk away as a reminder that this is what he did to her. He left her. He pushed her away. He ignored her feelings, snatched away her place in his life, and discarded her as if she was unworthy. The plethora of things Damon has done, maybe he will always pay for.

Caroline, Alaric, and Matt gallantly move past Damon, and Bonnie disappears from the hall and into the kitchen. Enzo, though, stands beside Damon. He folds his arms and his mouth parts, turning his head towards Damon.

"What do you think?" Enzo asks. Damon ponders his question, turning his lip up to think of what to say. He blinks and turns his head to Enzo.

"I think you shouldn't have given her those pills," Damon replies and smiles. Enzo's arms drop to his sides and he sucks in a breath as Damon walks away.

Bonnie sat on one side of the Salvatore table, while Abel and Lola sat on the other. They were explaining where they'd come from and what they were doing in Mystic Falls. Abel Bennett is apparently of one Bonnie's third cousins. He'd learned of her when he was in sixth grade. He laments remembering the day because of a huge tornado that ripped through the city, while he was in school. And it was also the same day he found out he was a witch.

Somehow, one class split up and the teacher lost them. Abel was a part of this class. He recalled being in the bathroom with another young boy. Who, for some odd reason, found it hilarious to beat Abel to a pulp. Abel said the boy told him it was something he had to do.

Bonnie was intrigued by the story. The rest watched and listened, unsure of what to think. Damon leaned in the doorway, slowly getting fed up with Abel's stories and Bonnie's unbelievable fascination with them.

"You're a real storyteller, aren't you?" Damon interrupts. Bonnie sighs.

"Damon—" Bonnie starts.

"No, Bonnie, shut up. Let me figure what this guy really wants from you."

"He's my family!"

"So he says!"

Enzo steps in between Bonnie and Damon. His attempts at escalating the situation were futile. Per usual, they always are. Enzo always find himself in the middle of the conflict between Bonnie and Damon. Mostly he puts himself there: intervening in their lives when he's bored, inserting unwanted opinions when it's not needed, and trying to be mediator to two individuals whose only mediation is to be around one another. That's one thing Enzo hasn't grasped. He can't stop the love between these two whether it manifests in rage or elatedness. There is no end to it. Enzo is like a blade trying to breach frozen, cold skin. And the skin, the tough, taut, protected skin is the love Damon and Bonnie have for each other. That's Enzo though— wanting something special for himself so bad he'll do anything and will believe anything to have it.

"Why do you think you can suddenly have a say in my life?" Bonnie unravels after Damon pulled her back into the Salvatore kitchen to have a little pow wow. "What? Because you saved it? After all of the times I've saved you, do you think I even cared a fraction about what you do after?"

"It's not like that!"

"Then, please! Enlighten me, Damon, because I'd like to know!"

"I'm sorry!" Damon closes his eyes in relief, a deep sigh leaving his mouth.

"You left me for three years. Three. And I was hurt for three years… why I was so stuck on you, I have not a clue. But I was."

Bonnie stops there, a warm sensation closes over her throat and she didn't want to talk anymore. Damon could see she was on the verge of crying, that what he did to her was more that he could see. He hurt her. He did something to her that can't be forgiven in a matter of seconds, in a few mumbled up words, jargon, a scatter brained speech, or a longing look. It would take more than saving her life to earn her back.

God, Damon just wanted her back.

He poured himself a drink, deciding to sit in front of the fireplace. Damon was usually one who'd always go where he was unwanted, but tonight, he chose to stay out of the kitchen. At least he knew someone was watching out for her, even if their means were steeped in stupidity.

"And you're from?" Enzo asks Lola. Bonnie introduced Abel and Lola to her friends, all except Damon. Enzo sat down next to her while Caroline and Matt stood behind them.

"Canton. It's a small area just outside of Mystic Falls," Lola replied. She removed a single bang from her face, tucking it behind her ear. "I met Abel a long while ago, and from an instant we bonded."

Lola explained, in a sweet, shy voice, that she and Abel were meant to be. That they were soulmates. Enzo grabbed Bonnie's hand, and while staring at her, said they were too. He kissed Bonnie lightly on the cheeks.

"The other guy, who's that?" Abel asks Bonnie.

"What other guy?"

"The one with the big, dark hair. The one that was glaring me. The one you were arguing—"

"Oh, you mean Damon."

"Damon Salvatore, right?"

If there was one thing Bonnie learned from first impressions of Abel, it's that he could talk. He could go on and on for days about one subject. And now the topic is of Damon Salvatore. Which lead into the final reveal that he was a witch, that he knew most of the people Bonnie associate's with is a witch, and that her death lead to them finding her.

"What do you mean, my death?" Bonnie asks. Despite being filled with contrition and an unhealthy amount of penance, Bonnie decided to focus on what was happening now. But, wasn't the irreversible fact that she awoke and felt something different happening now? Wasn't this perverse, erupting feeling quaking in her present now?

But Bonnie is Bonnie, so she'll ignore it. But not forever.

"Your death, Bonnie. I've been searching for you awhile, but I couldn't find you. Then, I could feel you dying. You felt remorse, guilt, pain." Abel continued to explain. Enzo listened on while Abel listed every emotion he could think of that hit him in that moment. Not an ounce of happiness even startled Bonnie.

Enzo interjects, "Wait a second, you can just… feel whatever she is feeling?"

"I'm her cousin. She's a witch. I'm a witch."

"How do we know you're not lying?"

"He's not." Bonnie settles it. The minute Abel's knuckles touched the Salvatore door Bonnie felt familiarity. A smile may have graced her face, if only for a second, but she knew that the feeling was something good. "I could feel him too."

So it was true. What about Enzo and Bonnie's last moments made her happy? Was she ever really happy with him? Enzo shifts in his seat as Abel shares more information with Bonnie. He leans into Bonnie and whispers in her ear. She nods and he walks away.

Caroline sits down in the seat next to Bonnie.

"I'm just curious though," Abel asks. "How on earth did you survive?"

That's just it though. Bonnie was still trying to unearth that question, and nobody knew what the answer was.

The tension in the Salvatore living room heightened when Enzo had entered. Damon could smell him all the way in the kitchen and felt his presence the minute he stepped foot inside.

"Want a drink?" Damon asks, holding up his glass while glaring at the fire. Enzo walked over, head down, and grabbed the drink. Damon pours himself another one. "I'll need a drinking buddy. Since the one I used to have doesn't want to be mine anymore. But I guess that's my fault, right?"

Enzo says nothing for awhile. He paces the room a bit and takes a sip of his drink.

"Hey," Damon turns in the chair to face Enzo, who suddenly stops. "Is Bonnie alright? You'd know being her bf and all?"

"Best friend or boyfriend?" Enzo replies, putting Damon in a pensive state. "Because it seems as though one each applies to one of us."

"I mean, Rayna told me she cursed Bonnie to be like her. Which means, you and I—" He takes his thumb across his neck, "—dead."

"You're joking, right?" Enzo asks.

"There's something wrong with Bonnie, Enzo." Enzo shakes his head and Damon stands up. "And if you can't see it, so be it. I do."

Enzo knew Damon had a point. He just didn't want to believe it. After finding out what Bonnie felt may not have been real is already too much handle. There's a lot of rage and bitterness aging inside of him, that was hiding when he fell in love with Bonnie, and now it's growing tired. It's growing restless. And it wants out. Now.

"Why not be the boyfriend you should have been from the start?" By now, Damon was in Enzo's face. A drunken mess, but he knew how to handle it. Enzo continued to keep his composure— containing the anger metastasizing in him. "Instead of sitting around waiting for her to implode, why not be the one thing she's always wanted? Someone to defend her?"

Enzo had to take a step back. If not, the blood boiling in his veins would have made him punch Damon. Was he trying to get Enzo upset? Partially, but Damon also wanted to fill him in on the truth.

"Because when you love someone, you do what it takes to save them, and accept it when everything you've done doesn't work out.

"There is a girl in there. An intelligent woman who's boldly in love with you and you sat around the entire time of her demise and did nothing."

"I did what she asked me to do!"

"If I did everything Bonnie asked me to do, do you think you'd have the love of your life?"

All Bonnie wanted was to be with Enzo during her last moments. Damon was disgusted by this, not only because it is enabling behavior, on Enzo's part, but there's small remnants of her relationship with Jeremy. Damon wanted Bonnie to be happy, and the Bonnie that was with Enzo didn't seem so. And Damon thought Enzo was madly in love with Bonnie, but always questioned whether it was the same for Bonnie.

"So, bullshit!" Damon yells. "Bullshit, Enzo."

There was silence in the room again. The tension swelling like the anger inside of Enzo. Damon walked away from Enzo, sitting back down and resting his chin on his hands.

"Hey," Bonnie walks into the room. Enzo turns around and walks over to her. She wraps her arms around him and snuggles her face into his neck. As her eyes open, Damon turns around and purses his lips at her. Enzo pulls away from her.

"We're going out for a bit," Bonnie said as Abel and Lola walk up behind her. Lola gives a wave.

"Where?" Enzo asks.

"Just out. They're witches and they want to teach some things."

Damon stands up and crosses the living room. "Wait, you still have your magic?"

"Yeah, want to find out?" Bonnie responds.

Damon shakes his head. "No, just wondering."

Bonnie turns around, walking towards the door with Abel and Lola. Then, she stops and runs back to Enzo. She plants her lips against his, her hips thrusted against his and hands moving softly against his mildly shaven cheeks.

Damon rolls his eyes in disgust.

After they leave, Enzo walks back to Damon.

"You still think there is something wrong with her?" Enzo asks.

"Look, the sight of you two stealing kisses and creating little nicknames for each other utterly disgusts me."

"Okay."

"That was just a disclaimer. Because what I'm about to say next may set you off."

"What? That you do believe something is wrong with Bonnie?"

"Ding, ding, ding! Seven brownie points for Enzo!"

To his dismay, Enzo agreed to help Damon. And that started with looking into the effects of Rayna's curse.

Bonnie, Abel, and Lola were walking back to their car when Caroline called for Bonnie. Bonnie runs over to her.

"I'm glad you're okay," Caroline said with a sigh. "So, so, so glad." Caroline pulls Bonnie into a hug. She tried to hold back tears, but it was another emotional moment for them. Caroline had lost Elena, they both had, and if she'd lost Bonnie too…

"I love you, Care." Bonnie said to her. Caroline said it back and Bonnie hugs her again. They lean from side to side.

"You are feeling, okay, right?" Caroline asks, holding onto Bonnie's forearms. Caroline saw something different too. The Bonnie that was there before she awoke is not the same Bonnie now. There just hasn't been a single defining thing to prove that. But Caroline was scared for her friend, and as happy as she is to see that she has some of her family back, Caroline is scared about that too.

"I'm fine, Caroline," Bonnie says and Caroline tilts her head. "Really! I'm okay!"

"Okay. Give me one last hug before we depart."

Bonnie waves to Caroline as she drives away with Alaric, walking back to Abel and Lola's car. She gets into the backseat.

"Ready to learn some pretty awesome witchery?" Lola asks.

"Let's go!" Bonnie exclaims.

There was something odd about the night. Peculiar, strangely gravitating, and serene. Of course Bonnie loved it. She loved gazing at the millions of stars as if they were placed intricately and carefully by some higher being. The beauty of it blanketed across a canvas of purple haze, and if she's lucky, there wouldn't be a cloud in sight to mask its radiance.

The stars tonight weren't so bright, but still elevated Bonnie and made her feel like she belonged. Which, on this night— a night where she'd beaten death once again, a night where the tension with her best friend increased, a night where a reunion between family commenced, a night where looking at her small palms were like looking at burning palm trees— she really needed to feel belonging.

She was with Abel and Lola. One being her cousin, the closest to a living blood relative she has right now. Through Bonnie's eyes, it couldn't be more perfect. Here, traipsing through leaves she couldn't see and tripping over uprooted, unnoticeable roots, everything felt perfect. Bonnie stopped and leaned against a tree, her eyes closed shut, and she breathed in the late night air.

Lola and Abel stop in their tracks. Abel exchanges looks with Lola, then focuses back on a wistful Bonnie.

"You love it, huh?" Abel asked her. Bonnie's mouth stretched wide and a chuckle escaped. Her eyes open and lock with Abel's. "Being here… it feels great out here, doesn't it?"

Bonnie's arms spread like wings. She tilts her head back. A surge of serendipity rips through her bones for a moment. "It's when I feel most connected to the earth. You know? Where I feel my power is at its tipping point."

Her arms drop to her sides and she moves forward. Abel nods his head, agreeing with her sentiments. He could feel a shiver through his bones too, but it was electric. It was sudden. It was insatiable.

Abel holds out the palms of his hands, welcoming Bonnie. Lola takes Abel's left hand in her right and she gestures Bonnie to join with her left. Bonnie's hands swiftly take comfort in both Abel and Lola's hands and she instantly feels the energy.

It was warm and sensuous. A swirl of colors began to form in front of the three of them. Abel's eyes closed, and Lola's slowly followed. Bonnie's eyes were wide in fascination, almost like they were intoxicated by the colors. She was like a child on the fourth of July stunned and fixated on the whirl of light. Her lips parted and she takes in a deep breath. As she exhales the triad of orange, yellow, and red pop and burst like balloons. Bonnie jumps, closing her eyes in an instant. The colors crackle in the cold air. Then, a purple flame appears. It hovers in the center. Their faces showcasing a purple hue.

Bonnie could feel energy coming in and out of her body. There were two different energies. One was euphoric. It made Bonnie feel joy like never before. This energy spread through her body quickly, moving at speeds her mind couldn't keep up with. A moan left Bonnie's mouth causing her to quickly open her eyes in shame. She looked at both Abel and Lola, through the purple floating flame, who were still concentrated with their eyes closed. Bonnie shut her eyes again and felt another energy enter her body.

This one, this one was familiar. Like a ghost of someone she knew or was supposed to know. It encompassed her, mind and body. She wasn't in control anymore. Her eyes opened. They were smothered in a blaze of blue and her face was still. It was like water, yet nothing moved. Abel's face was too. And Lola's was like stone. Their faces wore no expression, but the purple floating fire began to transform.

And as it did, pressure was put on Bonnie's hands. Something cold began to grasp her heart like a chilled palm pressing against her chest. Then, it tightened.

The fire whipped around like a shooting star. It spiraled up, leaving a trail of purple dust, until it took shape of a pine tree. Just as the tightening fell away, Bonnie could feel warmth again. It swarmed her body as if the sun was next to her and the fire they created dissipated in front of them. At once, an invisible force pushed them in opposite directions.

Bonnie stumbled back into a tree and awoke from the trance. She was in shock. She watched Abel stand, jog over to her and help her up.

"What just happened?" Bonnie asked as she stood to her feet. The ground looked shaky and she felt lightheaded.

"A protection spell," Abel said with a smile. Bonnie held her forehead.

"A what? I've done protection spells before and they've never felt like that. That was something else."

Lola stumbled her way over. She was still trying to gather her surroundings. Abel looked back at her with his arm wide and Lola fell into him. She was looking into his eyes, he was looking back, and they both started chuckling.

"That was amazing," Lola said, sighing. "I can't even—" She looks at Bonnie like she was royalty, her head shaking slowly. She steps cautiously towards Bonnie. "I am not worthy. I am not."

Lola wraps her arms around Bonnie's neck. Bonnie could smell the vanilla perfume that failed to mask the marijuana stench. She reaches up and places her hands on Lola's back.

"You really are as powerful as they say…" Lola continues.

"Okay, what was that, exactly?" Bonnie goes on, "Because while it felt amazing, there was just something a little strange about it. I didn't feel in control. At all."

"That's because we exchanged energies," Abel answered. "It helped enhance the protection spell."

Lola had more of a lavender energy. It was jovial, playful, and a little sexy, Abel explained. He'd told Bonnie hers was similar to his. It bled strength, seeks good and loyalty, and had a spark of spunk. As they traversed the forest more, Bonnie thought about it all. Energies. She felt Lola's with a little bit more weight than Abel's. Way more than she would have anticipated too.

She took a look at Lola. Her face was small and circular, but her cheekbones made it look bigger. Her child-like eyes and nose accented the gorgeous green that surrounded her iris. She was a beauty that probably hid a beast. Although her energy had a playfulness, there was something dangerous about it. And that enticed Bonnie because her mind is so closely connected to her soul and the energy that flows within, and the way their energies blended was without effort. It was as if Bonnie's soul waited for this moment to spill, to let loose, and to be free. Like, for instance, it was waiting for Lola.

Bonnie moans. Something engaging and tantalizing entered body just for a moment, then disappears. The feeling was intense. Her body shook as she felt the after effects. She could hear her breaths. Abel could hear her breaths. He stops and looks at her.

Bonnie felt as if she was floating. She was like a star herself floating in the night sky. A warm, radiant heat blazing from within her and down into the dark night. The feeling began to fleet. And she took one last deep breath.

"Are you alright?" Abel was concerned. She didn't look hurt. If he was being absolutely positive, she looked happy. "Hey."

"Now that… was amazing."

Her phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Bonnie, listen…" Enzo's tone was filled with sorrow. Bonnie walked away from Abel and Lola to speak to Enzo in private.

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked. She could hear Enzo's voice, there couldn't be anything wrong with him. Was it Damon? Damon was the last person he was with. Bonnie's head tilted back wanting the silence to end. The stars were in her eyes. Little orbs of light throughout her green, phosphorescent eyes. "What is it, Enzo? Just spit it out!"

"We think Matt is dead."

Bonnie's face slowly pulled away from her phone. And she stared at it, like it was something else. She thinks she heard Abel's voice somewhere in the distance. But she continued to look at her phone like it was something she'd never used before. Maybe she heard Enzo's voice calling from the phone. It was him. Bonnie's eyes moved away from the phone and her eyes had to refocus for the night. She licked her lips and Matt's name replayed in her head.

She sucked in a breath and held it. Her eyes traced the cold dark ground. She put the phone to her ear again to hear the incessant calls from Enzo.

"Is he really dead?" Bonnie asked.

From a few feet, Abel and Lola watched, in each other's grasp, as Bonnie falls to her knees. Her phone drops to her side and she starts to cry.

Abel jogs over while Lola covers her mouth. He drops to her side and attempts to console her. He bites his bottom lip to stop himself from crying, then Bonnie stands up and starts running.

She sprints through the forest to find her way back to the car. She had to get back to the Salvatore house. She had to see the truth. The tears on her face dried as the wind whipped past her face. And the tears stopped falling. And she stopped thinking about the bad. She started to think about the good. She thought about happiness, a rarity in her life but a melody that plays often in her head. Everyone who knew Bonnie knows she is the governor of hope. She owns it like she created the word. And, as she finds the car and breaths escape her all too quickly, she thinks of hope. It may be like a thread, hard to grip and hang onto, but it's something to hold.

She hops into the driver's seat and doesn't the car keys. She searches the car frantically and throws things around. Her small body hops into the backseat in search of them. Abel and Lola come running out of the forest. She gets into the passenger seat and Abel slides over the hood of the car. He enters the car quickly, speaking on the phone with Damon.

"We found her!" Abel yells. He starts the car just as Bonnie was yelling at him to do so. Damon demands to speak with Bonnie and Abel hands her the phone.

"Bon, you need to breathe," Damon tells her. Just hearing the sound of his voice forces more tears to fall. Like the spell earlier, she couldn't control her tears.

"Damon, is he really gone?" Bonnie asks. She was close to sobbing.

"Yes. My blood wouldn't save him."

Bonnie gasps and covers her mouth. Her body trembles as the tears fall. The sobs follow as she watches the trees out the window. It was dark and empty, but she could still see them standing tall. One by one, passing her by, leaving her. Then, suddenly, she sees another.

"Matt was soppy and sad and whiny," Damon continues. "But he was your friend. Which means… he was mine."

There were no more trees now. Just an open field.

"And I'm sorry I couldn't save him."

The field went on and Bonnie never looked away.

"Damon, can I ask you something? Why does it seem like people just… leave?"

Then, Bonnie learned something. Matt is dead. He's gone and there is probably nothing she can do. He didn't leave. He died, yet, it feels the same way. And just like there will always be another tree, there'll be another person she meets.

Hearing Damon's voice combined with her thoughts, her truthful, regretful thoughts, caused more tears to shed. Then, seeing this open field. This vast beauty of scorned crops.

Bonnie could blame hope or she could blame herself for thinking this. But it's the truth. Matt is a friend she'll never forget.

"How did he die?

"We don't know, but… in a creepy turn of events he said your name before his last breath."


	2. Chapter 2

And so Damon told her that it wasn't fair. That people left and it's the worst when they're stolen. It's worse when they were in your grasp yesterday and the particles of ultra violet rays today. He lamented on that the ugly truth was that Bonnie would get over it. That Matt would hold a special place in her heart, forever, but that the present would remain without him. That she could remain without him. He regaled that the good truth was that Bonnie would be happy again. That although it feels like a black hole is swelling in her abdomen that she'll feel joy and happiness again. And he swore the bad truth is yet to come. That although Bonnie knew all of this, and that she's probably tired of hearing his voice, it's still going to hurt all the same.

And Bonnie did know this. But hearing it from another person made it matter. It will hurt. She'd lost almost all of her family and her best friend. This pain has become her long-lost friend. Now it's back and it desires, it demands, a place in her life again.

It wasn't indiscernible in the backseat of Abel's car. On the road. Puffy, swollen eyes, outlined in crimson, moist and clammy. Her hand slowly falling from her ear after she hung up her phone. It was fathomable, this pain she knew, and arriving to the Salvatore house only made it more palpable.

"Are you sure?" Abel had asked as Bonnie stepped out of his car. She let out an exasperated sigh, staring directly at the Salvatore house. "Bonnie, are you positive?"

She turns to face Abel and nods. "Yeah. I just need to get to the bottom of this," Bonnie responds, her teeth almost clenching. She was bubbling with animosity, livid, and the continuous barrage of thoughts began to suffocate her mind. The truth was right in front of her, or so she thought; maybe when she walks in she'll see how he died for herself; maybe there will be copious amounts of blood; maybe it'll be clean; maybe it'll be a dead Matt with skin as rigid as paved roads and as pale as white lights.

Bonnie blinks out of her mind. The visuals vanish and she's looking at Abel in his black car.

"My friend died," Bonnie discloses, stupefied, "I don't… I… So, maybe I won't be okay." She tells Abel in confidence. Not a twinkle of shame sparked her eyes. She was balanced in her unabashed ways as usual and the truth flowed from her mouth like smoke from a train. "But I'll get through it."

Abel believed that. Lola was in the passenger seat with an empathic, tight smile.

Bonnie exhales and places her hands on the car. "Thank you for tonight." She nods smiling congenially. A familial part of Bonnie wasn't ready to let this night end. To let it go forever. Despite its dwindling turn, the time she had with Abel and Lola was something she hadn't in a long time. She'd been a lone witch indefinitely. The girl was among vampires and werewolves thrown in the crossfire every time. Now she was with real family. Just being around him made her feel stronger.

"Your welcome," Abel's head bowed slightly and Bonnie's brow furrows in shock. Her head slowly moves back as Lola waves to her.

"It was certainly nice to meet you!" Lola said. "Sorry about your friend."

Which reminds Bonnie, why did Matt speak her name before he died? The tires of Abel's car spin against the pavement before he speeds off, leaving a trail of gust and dust and Bonnie alone in the night. Turning to face the Salvatore house once again, her eyes struggled to focus. Was Matt trying to tell her something? Was it about who or what she was now?

She starts towards the Salvatore house, reaching the door and turning the knob. As the door slowly opened, and Bonnie's throat began to tighten, the first person she saw was Damon. A black long-sleeve exemplified his biceps and chest. He was very calm, concern glistening in his blue eyes, but that was less for the situation and more for Bonnie.

He wanted to hug her, or comfort her in some way, and if he had the gumption he'd do it. Instead, he let her boldly glare at him and lift her chin, while gliding past him like he wasn't there. Damon rocked in his stance. He was close to mugging her, turning and watching her walk to Enzo.

Words weren't enough. Ever. Not with Bonnie Bennett. It's like she had a hereditary bullshit detector that never trusted a word Damon said. One thing always buried in his mind is how different Bonnie thinks of him than Elena. Words got through to Elena. She loved that. It's an entirely different dynamic with Bonnie, a huge challenge, and words are moot. She loves action. She wants to see proof. Their little talk on the phone did nothing to resuscitate their relationship. His words meant nothing.

Bonnie stares at Matt lying on the sofa and Damon watches. He licks his lips nervously.

Nothing. His words may have meant nothing to her, and if that was the truth, the ugly truth, then this overbearing and savage silence Bonnie was giving him was the bad. The bad truth.

Still, Damon wanted to help. Even if that meant he said nothing. Because his instinct feels a connection between Bonnie and Matt's death. Not just because of what Matt said. But more because of what Rayna had done. His instinct senses that. And it also senses, and pushes that, he has to protect Bonnie through nothing and everything.

"What can I do?" Damon speaks in a low hum. Bonnie turns and his eyes beam up at her, his chin low.

She looks at Enzo, then back to Damon. "Right now? I'm going to call Caroline and let her know. We need to get funeral arrangements in order."

Bonnie leaves the room and Enzo sits, covering his mouth with both hands.

"What do you think?" Enzo asks him.

"She's trying to ignore it. But I know her," Damon responds. His lips scrunch up in condemnation for himself. "She thinks it's all her fault."

"But it's not."

Damon's face turns cold. His pale expression softens as he realizes the truth. "Maybe not," A burning sensation moves up his neck and in regret he speaks "But this may very well be her... doing this. She just doesn't know."

This wasn't her fault. Damon knew it. Enzo knew it. And Bonnie did too. But Damon and Bonnie also were likened to something else: that Bonnie Bennett was involved. Penitence flooded her mind and him the inclination to make sure she understands that none of this is her fault.

The door was half-open when Bonnie arrived. She pushed the door lightly and Caroline was nowhere to be found. Her dorm was empty. It was dark. A pale blue hovering in the air and a foggy moonlight fading in through the windows. Bonnie thought about where Caroline might be.

Bonnie stepped onto the asphalt on the roof. A girl with a white sweater sat on the edge of the building, curled blonde locks draping down her back.

"Caroline," Bonnie said as she walked towards her. "There you are."

Caroline's head turns in Bonnie's direction and from where she stood, Bonnie could see reddened lines upon her white face where tears had fallen. Caroline sniffles.

"Here I am," she responded with a chuckle. Bonnie plops down next to Caroline and sucks in a breath. She could see the other dorm across the street. It had been standing for years, since the school first opened. Bonnie and Caroline were in one of the newest dorms, planned especially for the freshman. And after their freshman year, they wanted to keep this dorm. Keep the memories and keep the new experiences. New experiences never come without surprise, and each one takes another step in a jungle of unpredictability. The two of them are there again.

"What happened, exactly?" Caroline asked. The words struggled to leave her mouth. She both didn't want to know but for herself, had to find out. She wipes her face with the sleeve of her shirt.

Bonnie shrugs. "He just collapsed apparently. But there is one outstanding factor," Bonnie laughs to herself, staring down at someone walking through the front doors. "He said my name before he died." Bonnie looks at Caroline and she stares back.

It felt like time stopped when Bonnie glanced into Caroline's eyes, because the look upon her face carried a lot of weight, and that weight was a mix of fervent emotions. If only Bonnie had the quick sense to decipher what was going on in Caroline's mind, and what, before Caroline turned away, she thought of the current situation. Bonnie put herself in the driver's seat of this scenario and despite what she thought Caroline would do, those thoughts saturated in awfulness and blame, Bonnie knew just how Caroline would react. With a hug.

And so Caroline pulled Bonnie in at a moment where she really needed it. With her uncanny awakening and the death of her friend, there was something about arms that cared about you tightly hugging the skin around you. The melanin on Bonnie, the skin that she was in where she felt a powerful, passionate self-guilt— and a sting of self-hate that laced around her heart. It was stiff, this lace, but Caroline hugged her and that rough lace tightening around her heart began to loosen. And the way Bonnie saw herself began to soften. Sometimes she did feel a pang of self-guilt or self-hate, but now she has ways to combat it. To feel good about herself. To know that when things are slowly falling to pieces, when the glass house turns to shards, when the foundation beneath her skin starts to crumble, one place she can go is to her friends.

She lost one tonight. But here on the roof she has another. And just as Caroline is about to let go, Bonnie hugs her for even longer.

Caroline whispers in Bonnie's ear, "It's not your fault." Bonnie hears this. "So what Matt said your name. He probably just cared about you that much."

Bonnie feels something warm on the side of her cheek. She moves her head from Caroline's neck and sees a red spot.

"Caroline, you're bleeding," Bonnie replies, staring at it in concern. Bonnie watches Caroline put her hand in the area and freak out. She stands up and runs back into the building. Bonnie follows Caroline all the way back to their dorm.

Bonnie stands by the door while Caroline examines the bloodspot in the mirror. She runs her index finger through it.

"Does it hurt?" Bonnie asks.

"No."

"I wonder what it is."

Bonnie looks away. She walks into the bathroom and leans on the sink, staring pensively at the wound. The blood didn't spill or leak. It was like a puddle of crimson. There was a darkened edge that looked like singed skin.

Caroline went into a cabinet above the sink and grabbed some bandages.

"Why am I not healing?" Caroline said while tearing the pack open. She was frustrated and, honestly, worried. She's a vampire and not healing is a huge, scary problem. Caroline put the bandage over the wound and massaged it to make sure it would stick.

"Maybe it's nothing?" Bonnie said as Caroline storms out of the bathroom. Bonnie follows her out and continues, "I can easily find the problem. I'll ask Abel and Lola—"

"Bonnie, it's forget it," Caroline cuts her off, standing in front of her bed. She sighs and sits down. Her eyes travel to the window as she shrugs. "Matt's funeral? We have to make sure it is perfect."

"I agree."

"Look, I'll meet you at the Salvatore house tomorrow, okay? I've gotta get back to my kids."

"Right," Bonnie nods and they hug for one last time. "See you tomorrow."

Caroline leaves and the door shuts behind her.

Bonnie and Caroline stood in front of the others. They were the self-appointed leaders of Matt's funeral. An hour before, they'd went to Matt's house to collect a few things. A nice outfit for Matt to wear at his funeral and some family photos.

Being back in Matt's house was nostalgic for Bonnie. She walked through the front door and it was like going back in time. Caroline followed her in closely behind. She locked the door, turned some lights on, opened some blinds, and even turned on the TV to "liven up the place". Caroline knew the place better than Bonnie. Bonnie took a little stroll around the living room, a trip down memory lane to say the least. It surprised her that Matt still had all of these family pictures up. There were ones of him and Vicki. Lots of those. There were also ones with the three of them: his mother, Vicki, and himself. In those Matt looked to smile the brightest.

"Caroline," Bonnie calls from the living room, hearing something break, "What are you doing?"

There was a pause then Caroline replies, "Nothing…"

Bonnie crosses in front of the TV and stops in front of a glass table. She kneels and looks at two picture frames. One was of Matt and Elena.

"Hey," Caroline calls from behind her. She walks closer and sees the picture. She looks pleasantly shocked, her arms dropping to the side. "Wow. They are so cute!"

"They are."

Bonnie remembers Matt talking about this day. He would be so enthusiastic talking about the fish, and fishing poles, and the boats, and the water. But he'd never mention Elena. Bonnie assumed he was too shy to be honest about his feelings for her. They were young, so that could have been a factor, but still. There was no mention of her. Not once. But Bonnie knew, even at that youthful age it was easy to see how infatuated Matt was with Elena. Seemed like everyone was.

"I got some clothes for Matt if you want to see," Caroline asks Bonnie. It didn't matter to Bonnie. Plus, Caroline was good at that kind of stuff so she wasn't worried. She was too concentrated on the world around her. Matt's world. Although he was gone it was almost as if he wasn't. Everything he was is right here. She walked where he walked and touched what he touched.

At the Salvatore house, Bonnie held up the picture of Matt and Elena. Damon, Stefan, Alaric, Enzo, and Tyler all looked on.

"We thought this picture would be good," Bonnie said. Caroline was going through a box of things she'd taken from Matt's house. She pulled out his varsity jacket for everyone to see. He had a football that she'd use somehow and some more family photos.

"We put a list together of what everyone should do," Caroline said.

"Caroline, put a list together because god forbid I have anything to do with it."

"Because you didn't suggest casket shopping with Damon? Right."

Bonnie did suggest that. She wanted to talk with Damon and clear the air on a few things. The tension was spiraling out of control just like it is now. Part of the reason why Caroline agreed to it is because she can feel the tension tearing the room to shreds. Bonnie and Damon needed to talk.

"I've assigned Tyler with Enzo to get flowers," Caroline went on.

"Flowers? With wolf boy?" Enzo asked. He would rather be with Bonnie, but Bonnie would rather be with Damon. Enzo was slowly beginning to realize his importance in her life. He watched Bonnie and Damon glance at each other. Contempt might have burned in her eyes for Damon, but she still looked at him, and thought about him, and glanced at him. Not one time did Bonnie look at Enzo, well, until now. She smiled and Enzo, despite not wanting to, smiled back.

Caroline continued down her list, leaving most of the heavy lifting to her. She started explaining where Matt should be buried. She thought a good place would be next to Elena's in the tomb, if they should get her back, so it'd just be his casket in the tomb for now. Bonnie assumed Damon would object and fought the idea on behalf of him. But to her surprise, there was no reaction from him. She did expect something, but what she got was… nothing. Just a gesture with his hand, dismissing the subject.

"I don't care where he's buried, as long as he is buried, so we can bury this entire burial," Damon left the group with a crooked smile. The gang was unanimously stunned by Damon's words. Bonnie folds her arms, figuring she was expecting something and she got it. Stefan stands up and chases Damon.

He appears in front of Damon and Damon rolls his eyes.

"What?" Damon questions. Stefan had the urge to denounce his actions and Damon felt it.

"Disrespecting their friend like that? What makes you think that's okay?" Stefan asks him. Damon folds his arms attempting to contain his hostility. He didn't want to hear this, didn't have the time, and it was colored all over his pale face in unique aversion.

"There are more important matters at hand."

"Like what?"

"You wouldn't understand or care so move."

"Please," Stefan pauses and takes a step towards Damon. Damon's head angles slowly as he and Stefan stare each other down. "Enlighten me, Damon. I want to know."

Damon swallows, then his mouth opens. "It's Bonnie. Something's wrong. She knows it. I know it. And while we're sitting around preparing for a funeral for a boy that nobody knew, a girl that we all care about, who is alive, is changing before our eyes!"

"You ever thought about what Bonnie wants?"

"Yeah, Damon, what about what I want?" Bonnie stands behind Damon and he turns around in surprise. A little witch yet so strong and unscathed, fearless, determined, and so brave. It humbled Damon how someone as small as Bonnie can harbor so much. Like the way she just challenged him and, to be frank, left him shook.

The first half of the ride was quiet. Bonnie didn't say anything and she didn't even look Damon's way. Although she was the one who suggested the two of them be together, she stared out the window. Damon gripped the steering wheels, trying not to think about what she was thinking about. He had an impression he knew. That what was holding her mind captive was not so much this death. That definitely was a factor. But it was herself. She was just as scared as he was about who she was now. He sees it now. He hears it. He hears her telling herself that she feels the same, she's acting the same, so maybe there is nothing wrong. Well, wrong. There is something going on. And he needs her to know this, but then there's the question that Stefan and Bonnie said to him.

 _What about what she wants?_

Damon should've just ignored this, because he wants the same thing he's certain she wants: for her to live and for her to not be confined to something else, for her to walk and breathe knowing that she is who she is. There shouldn't be a mystery around that. Damon and the rest of them shouldn't be waiting around for Bonnie to suddenly change while she plays house with Enzo. Something has to happen. Most of the ride there, he thought about this. Until Bonnie did something that Damon couldn't ignore. She turned on the radio.

A high pitched tune with a catchy phrase came on. Damon wasn't afraid to admit it irked him and Bonnie just cut her eyes at him. After a while she started to notice some little things. His index finger tapping against the steering wheel. His head bouncing slightly. Soon, he was singing the lyrics of the chorus to himself silently.

But when he saw her chuckling at him, he reached and cut the radio station off. And Bonnie cut it back on. Damon cut it off. Bonnie cut it on. Then, turning it off again, he jammed his finger on the power button.

"Oh, come on, Damon," Bonnie finally spoke up, "You know you like it."

"No, what I don't like is this annoying, humdrum song with the same happy-go-lucky tune throughout the entirety of it!"

There was a brief silence that conspired between them. It made Bonnie smile. She kind of missed bothering him. Damon missed it too and he looks over at her. The silence was broken when she turned the radio back on.

"Okay!" Damon said to himself before ripping the radio out of the car and throwing it out his window.

"Oh my god!" Bonnie exclaimed, laughing.

"Yeah."

"Well, it's your radio so if you want to destroy it, then by all means."

It was the car ride home from the funeral home that wasn't silent at all. Bonnie didn't like that Damon wasn't putting much effort into Matt's funeral. She tried to explain to him how important it was to her, using many tactics, and even using Elena.

Bonnie slammed the car door when she sat inside. Damon was still trying to process what she said and was still very surprised. Horrified that she'd use Elena to try and manipulate him. He reaches for the door handle and opens the car door. He was so vilified. His mouth was left agape and as he ascends steadily into the driver's seat, the hurt seething through his veins begins to sprout. And he lays it on her.

"You really tried to use Elena to hurt me. To make me do what you want." As Damon was speaking, Bonnie watches his face become very still. He didn't look at her once. "I would expect that from someone like Stefan, who does it for sport, but you?"

That's when he turned to face her and Bonnie looked forward. Damon's eyes were inviting as they were troubled and malignant as they were kind. She knew the look he was giving her now with his mouth wrinkled in and eyes stretched thin. It made her feel uncomfortable.

"I wasn't trying to hurt you. I was just trying to make you see what I feel is important."

Damon turned and faced forward. He put the keys into the ignition and started the car.

"I thought you already knew what I thought was important. It was you, dumb-dumb. I don't not care about Matt. I had a choice and I chose you."

Bonnie leaned back in her seat as Damon drove off. There was a lot more she wanted to say, but she didn't. She did understand him though. Between focusing on Matt's funeral and focusing on Bonnie, he felt that he had to choose what to put his time into. And that going along and doing things for Matt's funeral could worsen Bonnie. Or whatever is happening to her. Because he believed so passionately that something would happen to her if he didn't put a stop to it now.

So, despite what Bonnie thought, felt, or wished he would do. Damon just needed some type of confirmation that she'd be okay. She understood that. What she didn't understand is how he would just, in the same fold, completely disregard her feelings. It was almost as if he didn't respect her, but she soon realized he respected her enough to put her life before his. And that was all Bonnie needed.

Damon and Bonnie didn't talk for the few days up to the funeral. Damon was obviously off trying to find out what was going on with Bonnie. And Bonnie was getting everything ready for Matt's funeral.

The day before the funeral, Damon had ventured off to the armory thinking there might be answers inside of it. But when he walked in, he saw Enzo surrounded by men and women. One of the women he recognized was Alex.

Damon made his presence known as he marched up to Enzo and Alex in the gallery room.

"Enzo? What the hell are you doing here?" Damon asked. Enzo was about to speak but then he belted over, coughing and coughing until blood splatted onto the ground. Alex yelled for someone behind her and a man came running with an injection needle. He shot it into Enzo and the coughing slowly stopped.

Alex finally helped Enzo up and he was breathing deeply, sounding like a beast with a scratchy throat. Damon looked him up and down, then set his eyes on Alex.

"What's happening to him?" He asked her. Determination washed over his face and now he was not only saving Bonnie, but for Bonnie, going to save Enzo.

"It's been like this for a couple days now. We don't know." Alex replied, holding onto Enzo. He shrugged her off and looked at Damon.

"What're you injecting him with?"

"A serum that's keeping him alive."

"It's not killing him, is it? Like the fallacious save-a-witch pills you gave him to give to Bonnie?"

"No!"

"What do you want?!" Enzo asked Damon. "What are you doing here, huh? Here to rain misery and more on my life again?"

Damon watched Enzo as he paced back and forth. "I was looking for more information about Bonnie, and you might be my first clue."

The day of the funeral, Bonnie was standing in front of the cemetery. She held onto the black fence when she heard a voice from behind. She turns around and sees Abel and Lola.

"What're you guys doing here?" Bonnie asks. She was surprised to see them since it was a funeral for someone they didn't know. Abel felt he had to be with her though, which made Bonnie feel a whole lot better since she didn't think Enzo was coming. He'd been dodging her calls and sending her straight to voicemail. Of course Bonnie thought she did something wrong, she just didn't know what. And then… Damon. She saw Damon pulling up in his blue Camaro. He got out of his car funeral ready, and so did Enzo.

Abel, Bonnie, and Lola joined Caroline and her kids, Alaric, Tyler, and Stefan as they walked down the middle, grassy path through the cemetery. Bonnie turned around and saw Enzo and Damon following behind.

By now, they were in front of the tomb where Matt's casket was. All of them walked inside of it and, one by one, took one last look at Matt. When it was Bonnie's turn, she wasn't sure of what to say. She looked at the football in his hands and the pictures of his family by the casket on a table. There were flowers surrounding it that would probably be dead in a week. Then, she took Matt's hand in hers and closed her eyes.

A few minutes passed and she opened them, moving away from Matt. A tear ran down her cheek as she walked away. Softly and surprisingly, Enzo's hand perfectly slid into Bonnie's and she stops. Her face turns slowly. She just fell into his arms, not sobbing, just a silence of tears warming her brown, round cheeks. And now, she felt the warmness of Enzo's body.

As the gang left the tomb, Bonnie saw Stefan and Damon talking up ahead. When Stefan patted Damon on the shoulder and walked away, Bonnie walked fast up to him.

"You came here with Enzo?" She asked.

"Yeah, look, you may not think this is the time nor the place, but I think I'm on to something. About what's happening to you," Damon continues.

"IF there is anything happening to me. I feel fine, Damon!"

"Then, why don't I believe it?"

In her black dress, Bonnie followed Damon and Enzo as they walked through the armory in their black suits. Damon wore a white tie and Enzo a black. It was the night of the Matt's funeral, and instead of being with her friends, Bonnie went along with Damon. He'd urged her to come because, for one, he needed her. He also thought she should see it for herself, if it is true.

"I sealed this vault off for a reason," Bonnie said.

"Yeah, well, life," Damon responds. The three of them continue walking towards the vault. Bonnie looks up at the high, dark ceiling with its dim lights only a few feet apart from each other.

Enzo leans onto a wall in an instant. The coughs started again, but this time they were malevolent and taking all of his physical volition. He face plants onto the ground and Bonnie runs up to him. The coughs shoot out of his mouth uncontrollably, blood splatters all over the walls and Bonnie places her palms onto his back nervously. She was preparing a spell when Damon injects a serum into his neck. Enzo's breathing started to gain control, but he could barely make himself move. Bonnie rolled him over. His mouth hung open as a drop of blood rolled down the side of his mouth.

"Bon—" Enzo was about to speak before one last cough forces itself out. Spots of blood covered Bonnie's face. She sits back on her butt in shock, breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" Damon asks Enzo, trying to help him up. Enzo was staring at Bonnie. He was in a daze of confusion and pain. The latter of which was beginning to fade.

"What's happening to him?" Bonnie asked.

"I don't know, but," Damon replies to her. He was putting Enzo's arm around his neck when he noticed a red spot on Enzo's face. "What is that?"

Bonnie hurriedly stands and, with her mouth wide open, runs to see what Damon had just witnessed.

"Caroline had the same thing…" Bonnie said. They both look at each other in alarm. "Let's get this vault open… let's get this over with."


	3. Chapter 3

When Bonnie came to, her eyes blasted open into a psychotic night. Darkness was everywhere. Her sense of sight wasted on nothing but black. But these sounds… so ominous yet loud and chaotic. She sat up in a fritz, feeling grainy sand between her fingers. She called out for Damon. Nothing. A frightening stir of emotions surged in her body and it was like a cyclic wind of fear churning in her stomach as she realized she was alone.

Being alone to Bonnie was where her fear was at its peak. A time alone is a time procured by anxiety and paranoia, and it picks at the mind until the brain understands it's time to choose. To choose between giving up or taking charge. Her nails dig into the sand and she decides to fight. The sounds grew louder, like, something violent or malicious was closer to her. She heard a whip-like sound in earshot and a sharp sting landed on her upper arm. Bonnie gasps and grips onto it. A warm, mildly wet feeling filled her palm. The blood spilled profusely and that's when Bonnie's decision became a reality. Her mind had already knew. It was her body that was slow to react. A physical dysfunction stopped Bonnie from action, maybe it was the harsh hold of fear or the disconcerting reminder that Damon may be in trouble. Though now as the sound of a high pitched screech rises and rises, she stands to her feet and starts in a full sprint. A sprint that could lead to anywhere. The dark clouded her vision and immersed her into a world of uncertainty. But here she was, almost gliding across the soft, spur sand and making way down an endless, narrow cave-like pathway in the vault.

The sounds soon became background noise and the deep breaths from her started to grow loud. She steadied them, giving herself more stamina and more time to get farther and farther away from the sounds that surrounded her. Bonnie looks back when she hears the voice of a person. It was deep and scratchy, and seemed to vibrate the area. Her sprint slows to a stop and she bends over to catch a breath. A breathless "who are you?" leaves her mouth. Bonnie put her hand on the rocky wall.

"Hear me, Bonnie," The voice was saying. Bonnie's head leans forward in the darkness. "Hear me and know that we are coming."

The voice vibrated the walls and minuscule rocks fell between Bonnie's fingers and down the backside of her hand.

"Who are you? What is this?" Bonnie asked. She continued to ask these questions, taking two steps from the wall and to the other. Her hands felt over the bumpy, crater-like formations. As her fingers ran down the wall, as she stepped through the sand slowly, her hand sunk into a deep hole. The air was cold and something took a snip at her finger. Bonnie tries to pull her hand back out, but she couldn't. The fear she thought fled, well, never left. It was intense. Just as intense as the sounds circling her. It was a haunt of methodic melodies, a mess of poignancy filling her ears endlessly with terror. And her hand, caught in a cold wind, would not budge. She grabbed her arm with her free hand and pulled. Again, nothing. She jerked. The snip-snip sound of scissors came from inside the hole and Bonnie's panic rose. She pulled her arm hard and thought she might pull it from the socket. She didn't care nor did she let up. Bonnie felt the scissors begin to close around the tip of her middle finger. The scissors close and she screams. She joins the circus of sounds. The tip of her finger snaps off and Bonnie tugs more at her arm. She falls back into the wall, grasping at her hand with the other. She knew it was bleeding like a fountain and she, through quiet sobs, rips the bottom half of her dress off and tightly wraps the fabric around her finger. She puts a fist over the fabric and tucks it into her stomach. Her eyes shut tight.

"Bonnie!" The voice appears again and startles Bonnie. She jumps to her feet.

"How do you know my name?!" Bonnie yells back. She takes a step back. The voice, along with the other noises, were very close to her. Uncomfortably close. And after losing her finger, she wasn't taking anymore chances.

"You better pick up some tread, because I am so close to you, Bonnie."

Bonnie turns and sprints again. "Damon!" She calls again. "Damon, where are you?!"

Had they entered the vault and got torn from each other? Bonnie didn't know what happened to him. Or Enzo for that matter.

"Enzo!" There was a lot of fear in her voice. The other voice could sense it. The voice heard past the bravery that masked it. "Enzo, please answer me!"

Bonnie stops running again. She was exhausted and fell onto the floor. The dirt was soft, if not comfy, and she brought her middle finger to her chest. The blood was seeping through the thin fabric and her fist closed harder around it to seal it in. Bonnie shifted in the sand and felt something crawling on her foot. She flicked the little critter off with her other foot, but there was more. One swiftly crawled up her neck and before Bonnie could react, another was under her dress on her stomach. It pinched her stomach and Bonnie smashed it with her hands. The one on her neck gnawed at her, piercing her neck and making Bonnie scream.

Enzo's eyes opened. Stricken in red, like blood vessels were popped, he couldn't see a thing. It wasn't because of the nullifying darkness, but he really could see nothing. He could hardly move. A paralysis soothed his body. A drug-like paralytic that made him feel weightless. He was immobile.

Fear was more than heightened for Enzo, who, alone in the dark, could feel a shiver of warmth on his cheek. It became a part of him. It molded into him like clay and was beginning to form his truest fears. One of those, as he lay unable to do anything, was Bonnie in danger.

She was out there paralleling him. She was succumbing to her fears like him, drowning in a well of loneliness like him, and trying with the utmost strength to fight it all, just like him. He'd heard her call his name, but he couldn't reply. His mouth mumbled words quietly and nothing recognizable came out.

He might've thought this a good thing, though very ironic. He'd been in the dark about Bonnie, and about Bonnie and Damon ever since she'd awaken. She would never tell him anything. Enzo was a ghost. He was not seen and he was not heard, and he'd found out truths in this way. Silence does that. It becomes a reminder that everything you see is just a placid disguise for what's beneath it all.

Bonnie doesn't reciprocate the love that he shows her and she probably never will. And he's come to think that maybe laying here and waiting to die is the best solution. It might be terrible. But it will be telling, and honest, and more closely resembling his life than anything else at the moment.

He shut his eyes to speed up his long-awaited death. It was the first time he was prepared to die. He was willing. He'd accepted everything in his life as truth. The life he was living wasn't real and there was nothing keeping him here. But it seemed, and as depressing the candor as this was, that everything was pulling him away. Then, just as he thought of what Bonnie would say, he heard her screams.

Enzo grunted and put as much force as he could into moving his bones. He tried to lift his fingers. He attempted to move his legs. He even tried to lift his head up. Not a bone budged. That didn't stop him. Her screams grew horrific and the images in Enzo's head did too, so he knew he couldn't stop. And although his mind was all over the place: maybe Bonnie didn't love him in the obsessively horrific way he loved her; maybe he deserved to die; maybe this was it; he understood that Bonnie deserved a life worth living.

In his state though, Enzo wasn't going to be able to do anything. His mind was too controlled by delusion now to know this but with good intention. That's when a light appeared on his chest. It grew and grew and the darkness of Enzo's sight grayed a little. Hands grabbed under his shoulders and pulled him out of the vault.

Hours passed and Enzo awakes yet again. He wasn't blind anymore. The room he was in was white. White walls, tables, and doors. It was neat. He sat up instantly. An ache coursed through his body and resonated at his neck. The bloodspot. He felt over it but there was a patch on it.

"Enzo." Enzo looks up and sees Alex. One of his family. His expression turns sour and he swings his legs off the table, hopping off.

"Where's Bonnie?" Enzo asks. He starts to walk but his leg gives out. It cramps up and Enzo leans over, holding his leg.

"You're still in pain… I only, I only prolonged the time you'll stay alive." The look on Alex's face erased any resentment Enzo had shown for Alex. She was scared. Enzo was the face of fear too.

A loud, blaring alarm started to sound and the lights shut off. Red ones, emergency ones, came on and a man over the loudspeaker announced a lockdown. Alex bends down and helps Enzo stand quickly.

"What do you mean? What the bloody—ahh! What the hell is going on?" Enzo asks as Alex helps him across the room.

"Something must've escaped the vault when we pulled you out! We're all in danger now."

"Great." Enzo sighs and purses his lips as they move around a table in the center of the room. A large creature crashes down from the ceiling and onto it. It was half-blue, half-tan. A human-creature hybrid. Enzo glares at it in pure disgust. "Ugh, just what the doctor ordered, huh?"

The two of them slowly back away, not moving their eyes from it. It had a long tentacle for one arm and a human one on the other. It took slow, loud steps toward then hissed, revealing its sharp, mini-fanged teeth. The thing leaped up and pounced on them both.

It shoved its tentacle into Enzo's face and slammed it into the wall. With its free hand, it gripped Alex's neck. She rises off the ground, pulling a sharp knife out of her back pocket. She lifts it from her side, then brings it down into the things' arm. It drops her and Alex pulls the knife out just as it stumbles back, dragging Enzo with it. He tries to pull the tentacle off of his face, but he was too weak.

Alex walks towards the thing, spinning the sharp knife between her fingers, and she takes another stab at it. She pierces its tentacle and it retracts, then she stabs it in the eye. The thing lets out a loud screech and Enzo and Alex cover their ears. Glass windows break and the door busts open as the thing disappears into the ceiling, leaving a trail of turquoise blood.

Alex had fallen to her knees. Enzo was pulling himself up with the table. They both look towards the door and similar looks of anguish are exchanged. A plethora of things, big and small, jump through the windows and stomp in through the door.

"Before I die I need you to tell me, where is Bonnie?" Enzo demands.

Damon stumbled his way through the darkness. The last thing he remembered seeing was the vault's steel doors. Him and Bonnie had to drag Enzo into the vault to not take a chance at leaving him outside by himself. The idea was stupid, both ideas were, so him and Bonnie decided on the one that seemed less idiotic. But he didn't think that he'd be put in this predicament. A scenario so unpredictable it left him unhinged.

He saw a light. It floated in front of him for a long time before Damon started to reach for it. He'd thought it was Bonnie sending him a message, hopefully, and so following it might lead him to her. Little did he know, Bonnie was in just bad a position he was.

He followed the light like a spirit lost in purgatory. It floated in a straight line for a long time. Then, it turned abruptly and so did Damon. He tripped over his feet in the sand and the light started moving quicker.

Damon's pace quickened also and as he got closer, he noticed the light was like a small floating flame. He tried to grab it, but it flew from his grasp. Damon smiled like a child, but his eyes were a whirl of excitement and rage. The flame flashed away, a few hundred feet or so from Damon, and he used his vampire speed to catch up to it. In a zap, he was right in front of it. The flame lit up Damon's blue orbs and a faint red circled in his eyes. It was like fire and ice, circling and shaping with each other. When he revealed his teeth to smile because he was mesmerized by the flame, the flame lit them up in the dark.

Earlier, he felt he was being chased. There were sounds and noises coming from everywhere. He shouted at them, threatened them, and egged them to come out and show themselves. It slowly started to drive him insane and he was in a sprint. His vampire speed let him get away from the sounds quickly. Tranquility put him at ease when the sounds were gone and the silence was gratifying. He let himself be vulnerable for a short time and leaned against a wall. But it didn't last long because Bonnie's voice called out for him.

Damon went into sprint mode again and traveled as far and fast as he could. Her voice was growing closer, her screams louder, and it could only mean he was getting closer. His sprint was cut short when he ran into a wall. It put him straight on his back, but he could still hear Bonnie's cries. He yelled her name, hoping she could hear, and he stood to his feet and kicked the wall in front of him. He ran at it in full force, smashing and pounding his fists into it. He banged his head into it a couple times, then the rage that possessed him went away. He leaned his forehead onto the wall and noticed Bonnie's cries disappear.

He fell slowly onto his knees. Bonnie could be dead or she could have saved herself. She was good for saving herself. She persevered in that way. He'd only hoped it was the latter as he turned and leaned his back against the wall.

"She's not dead," He said to himself. "She's not dead. Bonnie you're not dead!"

And that's when the light he now followed appeared.

He was the one doing the chasing. He was the one forcing fear into a life force. He was the one driving them away and on the run. It made him feel good to have the upper hand again.

The flame zig-zagged across the room and Damon followed suit. It rose in the air and Damon crawled the wall, leaping off of it to grab the flame. But, again, the flame zipped away and Damon landed on his two feet in pursuit of it. He went to grab it again, leaping off of it his feet and launching towards it. He misses again and rolls onto the ground and into a wall. He laughs to himself, standing, and the flame charges at him. It burns into his stomach and Damon grunts, clenching his teeth. He sprints away and the flame dislodges from his stomach.

Kneeling against a wall, Damon looks in paranoia for the flame. It had turned on him. The flame appeared back in Damon's face and he stood, backing away from it. It followed him. It followed him and Damon didn't remove his eyes.

"Get out of my way!" Damon tried to hit the flame but it disappeared again. He circled. "Where are you?"

It appears in his face again. The flame backs away slowly and Damon watches it with thinned eyes. It charges at Damon again and this time, Damon dodges it. It comes at Damon's arm and he moves it just in time. The little flame goes for his stomach again, but Damon hops back. Soon, Damon found himself dodging the flames attacks and walking back.

The flame runs Damon into a wall and charges at his chest, but Damon sprints away. He zig-zags, circles, and tries to be unpredictable in his method of moving. Each time he looked back, though, there the flame was. It was catching up to him, closing the gap Damon had between them, and eventually… it would catch him.

Damon stops. The flame is gone. He looks all around him and sees nothing. No light. But Damon had no idea where to run now. He didn't know where to start to look for Bonnie, or Enzo, and couldn't even try to get out if he wanted. He knew nothing. He heard something.

It was the sound of a match starting to light. And before Damon could look, a line of fire was coming towards him. He turns around to see another line of fire. Two more were coming from other directions, and more were filling anymore space Damon would've tried to run. The walls were swallowed by fire. This was the end. The fire swallowed Damon whole and he yelled loudly. He was a walking torch, stepping across the room slowly until he falls to his knees.

He could think only one thing, the one thing he denied himself thinking: including him, everybody's dead.


	4. Chapter 4

A rock fit perfectly into Bonnie's palm as she bashed a monsters' face in. A light blue color of blood blotted her face. Its tentacle flopped around until Bonnie ripped it off. It agitated her. It had to go. She gripped the slippery tentacle with both hands, put her foot into the monsters' pit, and yanked until the tentacle ripped off. It was methodically simple for her. She tossed it to the side. A huff and puff came and went as she stared at the monster.

"You didn't really think that was it? Did you?" The voice said. It felt as if blanket covered her chest the warmth there was so intense. The voice's words only increased the hatred she'd gained for him. Her fist balled up and she checked her surroundings, with a smug expression on her face.

"I've endured your little critters, the voices of the dark beyond, lost the finger that I'd regularly flip you with, and you think there's more you can try to break me with?" Bonnie retorts in a slightly witty, but enraged voice. Her mouth held open a second as she waited for the voice to come up with something clever to say. Bonnie chuckled. "Do you know who I am? I am—"

"Bonnie Bennett, survivor enthusiast." Bonnie turns around and sees Damon, holding the tentacle in his hand and walking towards her. "You did this?" Damon nods his head in approval and Bonnie puts her hands on her hips.

"My expertise doesn't need your validation," Her head leans to the side as he tosses the tentacle at her. She catches it.

"Expertise, huh?" His eyes grow wide. "Bonnie 'the octopus dismemberer' Bennett. Where'd you find this anyway?"

"Oh, you haven't had the pleasure of meeting our friends yet?" Bonnie asked. What she says misses Damon because of his analyzing of her cuts and bruises. He places a hand on one. "Woah, ouch!"

"You need some blood."

"We need to find Enzo and then, we need to find what it was we came here looking for."

Damon squints his eyes. "What was that again?"

"More information on Rayna's curse and what may have happened to me."

"Right." Damon turned away, pacing. Bonnie's brow furrows and she observes him closely. "Rayna's curse, yadda-yadda, you died, boom-bam, got it." Bonnie follows him, a look of suspicion forming on her face. "Yeah, Bonnie, we can't do that."

"What do you mean? This was your idea."

Damon turns back around. "Yeah, I know. But if we're looking to find answers—"

"If we're looking to find answers, you said they'd be here! Now I'm not feeling as—"

Damon holds a hand up and Bonnie stops talking. "Did you hear that?

Bonnie's head slowly starts to shake; her mouth agape. Something was off about him.

"Hear what?"

"A voice. An annoying voice talking in circles about blah-blah blah-blah blah-blah."

Bonnie marches over to Damon and yanks him to look at her. "You said there was information about me here! Information about this… new life I've acquired because of you!"

Damon dismissively shakes his head. "I don't recall."

"Tell me! Is there or isn't there something in here that could explain why I feel the way I feel?"

Damon waited a moment, peering down at the space between them. Bonnie's face was a configuration of disgust and mistrust. The one time she was thinking about trusting him again and this happens. This is what he does. It was an act Damon hasn't performed in a long while and he picks this defining moment to do so. His eyes meet hers once again.

"Let's just find, Enzo. And get out of here." Damon steps away from her. He walked away nonchalantly like Bonnie's feelings didn't matter. That the fact that he played her was just another feather floating in the air. Another non-factor.

She watched him, arms folded, and hated the silence. The voice chasing her had disappeared and the monsters had suddenly evaporated. It was just him and her and the space between. The growing space that Bonnie chose not to close due to her being so surprised. Why would he lie like this? Why would he dangle hope in front of her only for it to be false?

She'd thought he'd lead her to answers about Enzo and Caroline's mysterious bloodspots and the unfortunate death of Matt. But everything is even ambiguous than it was before.

A tear fell from her eye and Bonnie wiped it before it dripped off her chin. She didn't even know she was crying. She just wanted to know who she was now.

The vault doors had already been opened. A loud, blaring sound carried throughout the halls of the armory and red lights blinked in and out. Bonnie and Damon walked down the destroyed hall. Broken windows and broken doors. Ceiling lights were hanging.

"The hell happened?" Bonnie said to herself. She stepped over a lifeless, hybrid-like creature in front of her.

"Something evil escaped the vault," Damon answers. Bonnie cuts her eyes at him and he turns to face her. "Something wicked this way comes."

"Please, don't talk to me right now. I am so upset with you." Bonnie's walk quickens. She calls for Enzo.

Behind her, Damon cracked his neck. A menacing look washes over his face. He watches Bonnie like a voyeur. She walks from room to room. His eyes narrow.

"Enzo! Enzo!" Bonnie yells as she reaches the end of the hall. She turns around to see Damon and two black dogs were standing on either side of him. One growled.

"Don't move, Bonnie," Damon told her. Bonnie sucks in a breath and holds out her hands to guard herself.

"Okay, doggy's… I'm no threat." Bonnie said. She takes a step back and steps on a broken pole. She looks back and picks it up, preparing to throw it. Inhaling, Bonnie throws the pole past Damon and down the hall.

"Fetch!" Bonnie shouts. The dogs run after the pole and Bonnie's face goes into alert mode. Her eyebrows raise and she nods to Damon. "Now!"

He doesn't move. He stands there with a blank expression, a torn and hanging cable sparking next to him.

"Damon, run!" Bonnie yells. She saw the dogs sprinting back and she sprinted off herself, turning a corner.

A smirk crosses Damon's face as the dogs run past him and after Bonnie.

Bonnie sprints through the main room of the Armory and to the front doors. The armory was a mess of broken glass and wood. The upper railings of the second floor were torn apart. The glass cases that held items and artifacts were broken into, and some were scattered all across the battered floor. It was like an earthquake shook through here. An earthquake of monsters, and when Bonnie reached the front door, she was stopped by one of the dogs chasing her.

Her movements came to halt. Her bare feet stopping on tiny shards. She looked down quickly at them, then up at the growling dog. It walked closer to her and Bonnie got a closer look of the dog. It had a fiendish look in its dark red eyes. Lines that mimicked lightning in the night sky stretch from his eyes to the dark fur on around his eyes. Seeing this made Bonnie take a couple steps back. As she turned around there was the other with drool falling from its mouth. It barked. Bonnie jumps.

She thinks fast and lifts the palm of her hands into the air. The other swiftly stretches to the other side of her and her arms are held out like wings. Her eyelids shut and she basks in the magic conjuring up. She chants, loud and articulate. They come out in repetition and the dogs' legs begin to wobble. Bonnie walks towards one. She looked like a girl who's been through a tornado in a sandstorm, covered in bruises and scratches and patches of dirt, but was poised and harbored strength as she forced the dog into a silent coma. The other dog behind her attacked her. It launched at her neck and Bonnie spun, screaming, and threw the dog off of her.

She tripped over a broken piece of wood and fell. Her neck was bleeding, stinging from the dog bite. She slowly places a hand over it.

"Bonnie!" Enzo's voice resounded from across the room. He was standing at the front door holding it open. "Bonnie, come on!"

"We can't leave Damon! He's still in there!" Bonnie stresses to him. Enzo uses his vampire speed to flash to Bonnie, but it nearly fatigued him as he leans against a wooden table for support.

Catching his breath, Enzo replies, "Where? I'll find him. You get out of here!"

Bonnie stares at Enzo. She was concerned for him. He looked like he was suffering through a lot of pain. All she could think was that it got worse. Whatever is happening to him became intense. It was on his distressed face. In his bloodshot eyes. In his shakes and shiver and trembles. In every move he made. Bonnie didn't want to leave him.

She starts to move towards him when he yells for her to go.

"I mean it! Go, Bonnie! Be safe and get help!"

She rises from the ground and runs towards the door. She looks back when she reaches the door and tightens her lips. Why did this feel like the last time she'd see him? Why deep down she felt like this?

It was like she knew something that she didn't know she knew.

Enzo finds Damon, his palm against a wall, flames protruding from under it. Enzo was perplexed. He steps closer.

"Damon, we need to go!" Enzo says. Damon's head slowly turns to Enzo's. His eyes were narrowed and guised in malevolence. Under some vile possession, Damon caused Enzo to collapse to his knees in one look. A puddle of fire erupted beneath Enzo's knees. It spread out and Enzo's mouth locked tight as he tried to contain a scream. They open to let out a couple of raspy breaths. He heaved in. And the fire only got hotter.

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

Enzo's legs were shaking. They were boiling. His skin was turning a fleshy red, bubbles popping and fabric tearing. "One of those monsters got to you, didn't they? Get out of HIM!"

"It was more of… a molding together. I would worry less of who I am, and more of what's about to happen to you. And all your friends. You see, Bonnie woke up with a slight change to her sense of touch. I know this because she touched me. I'll be dying soon too. As will you."

"What're you talking about?"

"Bonnie. Your girlfriend, and apparently my best friend who I'm currently in love with, is who I'm talking about. She is now the angel of death. An army will be created. But thank the highers I will be long gone before that happens."

"What?"

"You are all dead. By the time she's done, every vampire in existence will be evaporated."

Enzo shakes his head. "She wouldn't do that."

"Hilarious. You hardly know her. When she finds out she harnesses the incredible power to rid the world of evil… she'll know what to choose. Because she is good."

"You don't know her! You don't know what she'll do!"

"I don't. But Damon does. And I can feel everything he feels for her. He knows her so much that when I was going to kill her, it made me emotional. But there's no reason to kill her now. She's touched me already and my supernatural soul will vanquish from this world. Then, Damon will come back. But if he touches her like she touched you, well…"

Enzo growls at him.

"You don't have much time to live, Enzo. The bloodspots came? The blurred vision? Aren't you weaker now? I'd save that energy now. To live."

Damon walks up to Enzo and touches his face, gliding his finger down to the chin. A line of fire erupts on Enzo's face.

Enzo's head shakes uncontrollably and Damon stands. He sighs, leaving Enzo alone to die.


	5. Chapter 5

A cool, brisk wave hovers over Bonnie's cheek. It had a faint watery smell to it, that Bonnie developed an affinity for, and a damp attraction that filled her nostrils when she inhaled. When she exhaled her lids were slow to open and the picture reflected the dark that resided in her mind. The dark that held guilt. It was imprisoned there.

She turned over and realized she was in the backseat of a car. A purple, shaggy-haired blanket covered her body and she pushed it down to her waist. One person was cemented into her mind. He was plastered there as if he were the sinewy threads holding her cells together, but he was something more prolific than that. He was a fragment of her guilt, a shard of her remorse. Enzo was that. He was supposed to be her boyfriend and the man she loves. But all she could think about while staring, unblinkingly, at the ceiling of the car was what he was reduced to. And it was her fault. She put him in a glass of case of honorability and love. It was going to fall soon. It was going to shatter. And when it did, the broken pieces scattered the base of her mind. Was it her fault? Of course it was. She left him and the guilt would remain in her mind like a buried corpse beneath hallowed ground.

She didn't bother wonder who was driving the car. Or how she got there. She just couldn't stop thinking about Enzo and what he was to her. Memories of the two of them were scarred now. They were battered with the painful, unforgettable silhouette of Enzo's makeshift death. It went like this:

Damon killed Enzo. But he didn't. The torture of behind it all confused Bonnie. She could stare at that ceiling the whole ride home and there lie a million pixels of black fabric, only for her to see a Damon that she thought she wouldn't have to meet again. It was difficult for her to separate the two. Damon was possessed by something, and it forced him to kill Enzo. But, Damon already had it in his mind to off Enzo. There was no dichotomy of Damon and his possessor. No between. There was only one to Bonnie. And that one was Damon.

She was weak, but the crisp night air gave Bonnie a reason to wake up. She picked her head up and glanced at the driver. It was hard to tell, but it was a girl. Long black hair. Sun-touched skin. Petite, thin fingers suddenly bracing the steering wheel. Bonnie watched closer and quickly became very alert. She turned around and looked out of the window. It was some distance away, but she saw it. It was like a giant firefly whisking and whipping through the air, soaring like a shooting star then miraculously vanishing.

A part of Bonnie wanted to make a wish. But she knew it wasn't real. That ball of fire leaving a trail of caustic sparks across a blanket of black was nothing but a sphere of flames. It lit Bonnie's face which meandered into hysteria as a small fireball pummels downward. The car sped up, missing the fireball by an inch.

"What is that?!" A mortified voice came from the driver's seat. She glanced at Bonnie, stressed. It was Alex, though Bonnie had already figured that. The insanity of it all locked both of them in a shell of incredulity and belief. A wicked dynamic. Alex was a definite reflection of mass chaos, flexed in her eyebrows and tight-lipped consternation. Her breathing rose and rose, from her stomach to her throat, and out of her mouth through a palpitating shock. Bonnie braced herself and began to wonder. The lids of her eyes thinned as she pensively folded her hands together. What was in the air, what moved agile and unpredictable, looking like a trail of stars in formation, was Damon. Bonnie had to shake that feeling. She had to fight it. Because to believe it is to believe that Damon is trying to kill her. In a calm stand against Damon, she glared at the fireball heading towards her. Chasing her down, pummeling trees and power lines in the mundane, remote area. It gained speed. Small fragments of light leaping off of the ball, almost repelled, scorching the verdant leaves and burning holes into angular branches. The engine of the car got louder, but the fireball still kept up.

"This thing won't drive faster!" Alex yells, slamming her hand on the steering wheel. She looked in her rearview mirror and a ball of rolling light filled her back window. "AH!"

Bonnie was still treading the line between belief and disbelief. She knew that he killed Enzo. That was a given at a time where things would only be taken. First, Matt was taken. Then, Enzo. And now, Damon was taken. Her best friend. And the only certain thing, the one devious given, was that Damon was trying to kill her. And that hardened wire of belief tugs on her throat. It is him. And she needs to realize that. She swallows, gasps, and a chant leaves her open mouth. Her palms rises towards the back window and glass cracks, like a bullet penetrated. Her hand flips up and the glass busts into a million shards.

"Bonnie, what're you doing?" Alex asks her. The car bounces up as Bonnie, filled with a null relief, places a hand on the trunk. "Don't go out there! Are you stupid!?"

Bonnie doesn't stop. Her mind is set, flushed with a breath of fresh air. An unlikely and sudden breach into her barricaded mind— she had to stop Damon. The feelings or emotions driving her to stop herself from taking him down a notch were now substituted. They were absent of her mind and replaced with a determination. A boost of relief that she hadn't felt before. It was like something was pressing against her mind, a knob turning constantly on her brain, and now it wasn't there anymore. Damon succumbed to an evil, and even if she knew it wasn't him fully in control, she can't resist the itching sensation that he's kind of loving it.

Bonnie, halfway onto the trunk, looks back at Alex. She calmed herself, exhaling.

"You need to keep ride steady," Bonnie demands. Alex whips her head around, eyes bulging from her head.

"You need to stay in this car! It's getting closer!" Alex yells. Bonnie's stern look graces the eye of the fireball.

"Not for long," Bonnie says.

Gaining her balance, Bonnie stands atop the trunk of the car. Her black dress flows in front of her, her hair doing the same. She could feel the heat on her skin as the fireball closes what space they had. Bonnie's mouth upturns into anger. She growls and the innocence that basked the outer layer of her mind, the layer that hid the true nature of who Damon is, beget a new ambience that beset the walls in her head. An ambience that decidedly wanted to pursue Damon, that loved Damon, but with no alternatives in mind, grasped at a thought to kill Damon. And as her skin feels as if it is boiling, and her mouth opens in anguish, and she clenches her teeth, and she balls her hands into fists, and as a line of sweat grows on her forehead, one thing is true: it's either her or Damon.

She pushes her hands forward and the ball of fire's middle wiggles, as if losing its corporeality. Her incantations grow louder. This was the part where she saw close into the heart of the fireball— and it didn't look like a fireball any longer. It was something else entirely. A caustic, spherical sea of sparks depleting its charges onto the dirt road. In front of Bonnie, boiling inside itself closer and closer to her bravely fixed face. She brandished the magic Abel taught her as if it were her own. The car rattled, bounced, and moved from its bald tires and pot holes the size of a basketball in the ground. Like waves in the ocean, holes were rippled into the dirt road. None of this bothered Bonnie. It was all just surroundings, while she swiftly lifted her fingers into the air. Little blots of yellow spread over her fingers. A whistle sounded and she her hands thrusted forward. Her magic sent a pulse through the ball of fire. It's rumble towards her slowed and as she stared it down, as Alex sped the car up, the car hit a pothole that would send Bonnie flying off of the car.

Alex's car flipped and rolled numerous times down the dirt road. She was unconscious. The side of her face planted against the ceiling of the car, which was upside down. Bonnie wasn't out for long. The magic sustained her, like the blood of a human for vampires, and it awakened her to the dark gaze. It was hard to see, but a feeling a severe heat washed over her. It intensified on her wrist and she held it, letting out a shriek. The fire demon that possessed Damon was around. Transparent. Invisible.

Bonnie looked down at her wrist. It still burned. And there was still nothing to be seen.

The air around her was humid and hot. She stepped foot onto the dirt road and saw the car. She broke out into a sprint, kneeling down to see Alex. She reaches in to grab her, struggling to pull her out. The burning sensation on her wrist worsened and she grabbed again. Tight. She sat back and held tucked her wrist into her stomach.

Boots click-clacked behind her. Something was walking towards. Bonnie turns to see Damon, coalesced in fire up to his neck. Bonnie's eyes jumped all over his body. He should be dying.

"You're killing him!" Bonnie screamed at him. She sprinted at him, chanting a spell, then tackles him. They tumble the ground, dust and gravel spraying up around them. Dust fills the gap between them. Bonnie was struck with a brisk anger when she pummeled fists down onto Damon. The monster in Damon forced Bonnie off. He sent her rolling off to the edge of the road, a shard of blunt glass scarring the palm of her hand. Instinctively, she covers the palm with her other hand. A blaze of fire lights the darkness around her. Tree leaves, shrubs, bushes, debris, and any small object, and tiny corner of black, was illuminated in the dark. Bonnie's eyes grew wide as the light consumes her face.

Damon's body was covered in fire. A walking torch amid the suffocating darkness. A light in a dark, dark hole. It's what it seemed like to Bonnie. A touching parallel. What Bonnie was to Damon is what Damon is to Bonnie now. In a literal, tragic fashion walking towards her as if he was the sun. And her, the overwhelming land and oceans. As he got closer and closer, Bonnie stood. Her fists were balled and a spell was prepared in her mind. She opens her mouth and the car explodes.

It felt like a long time. As if the minutes slowed to hours and the hours to days. The sun overturned forever and the moon was the reigning star for not only night, but day also. But then, her body slams into the side of a tree. And what felt like decades was a minuscule minute.

She didn't awaken right away. When she did, Damon was nowhere to be found. The one thing certain was a dead, obliterated Alex. There was almost nothing left of her body. Bonnie could tell standing from the edge of the road. She swallowed. With Damon gone there was no way to stop what was happening to him. She looked down the street before crossing to the burning car. No sign of him. No sparks of fire, no fake shooting stars, no nothing. The only source of light was the one coming from the car. When she turned to face it, a menacing kind of sadness poured into her.

Whatever was there, was emptied out. As if, washed away, by this overbearing sadness. A sudden switch in gazes, from alert to pity, crossed her face. She was a mere ten feet from where the rest of Alex was burning. She felt for Alex. She was one of many. Many who were just… at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong people. Bonnie was one of those people. The wrong. The ones who caused pain through intentions of stopping it. A headache of a cycle barraging its way through the minds of people. Bonnie wouldn't stop and so, the cycle wouldn't either. She knew, staring through the whips of spark and fire, people were going to die. There would be casualties.

She drops to her knees. Small particles of fire float in front of her, fading away. The fire crackled and a catatonic Bonnie didn't move. This was the part she'd regret. This was where her gut would wrench and crunch inside because of this selfish moment. Her eyes close. Sucking in a breath she also sucked in the surrounding solitude. A possessed, pyrotectic Damon is gone. A girl burned alive in front of fire. The soothing, yet repetitive snap of the fire echoing out into the midnight air. This was a silence Bonnie could bear. A quietness held close to that sadness that was nearly swallowing her whole. A balance was made and her eyes opened.

The time she wasted, she could have went to get the police, but she instead took the time for herself. Bonnie thought it deserved, even if the Alex's lifeless Bonnie continued to burn. But while deserved, doesn't mean it was right. Her softest side of morality was fixed in her cursed emerald eyes. And she looked at the poor girl as if it was her fault.

She didn't get startled when she felt a hand touch her shoulder. It was Abel.

"Are you okay?" He asked her. Bonnie placed a hand on his.

"I'll be fine… she… won't," Bonnie responded. She kept telling herself it was a small moment. She told herself it was okay. She told herself it was fine. She had to, because it's hard to break bad habits, and hers was always blaming herself.

On the ride home she thought about Damon. He's out there trapped inside of his own body, fighting a demon and, depressingly, fighting his deepest desires. The temptation to give in, to let go of his inhibitions, is bound to happen. If she doesn't find him soon enough, there might not be any coming back for him.

She couldn't believe herself back there. She was willing to kill him. Her best friend. She lifts her hands to her face in the backseat of Abel's car. Was it the magic? It was so powerful and full of a variety of energies. It had the capacity of shielding Bonnie from the heat of a gigantic fireball, all the while fueling her with copious amounts of magic to perform spells. Coupled with the instantaneous bound of euphoria that traveled throughout her body, sending bouts of ticklish vibrations up to her brain. Reinforcing a good feeling matched with a superior quality— a magic that has the power to control, sustain, and destroy.

Bonnie was busy worrying about a force taking control of Damon, she needs to be more careful with herself. She starts remembering the other night with Abel and Lola. It was an incredible exchanging of magic, but what exactly was it? Here was Abel, sitting in the driver's seat, and she nervously rubs her hands together. She takes a glance at Lola. Nothing suspicious about her, but Bonnie already recognizes that all truths are buried. And this tale of Abel, a family member of Bonnie's, is as suspicious as it comes. He had explained how it is they're related, but after what's happened, she may not be believing him as much.

"What did you do to me that night?" Bonnie's voice puts an awkward, tense kind of silence in the room. It was heavy, encased in emotion. Abel and Lola knew it was serious, and the way they looked at each other, Bonnie had clued in on something. "Well?"

"What night?" Abel retorted with a question. Bonnie's face turned blank.

"You know what night. You showed me a different kind of magic…" Bonnie asked again.

"It wasn't different—"

"It was! I felt it!" Bonnie interrupted him. She was mad. Her face looked strained and she sat back. It was clear they were hiding something, but Bonnie was too exhausted to figure out what it is. A part of her just wanted to sleep. She wanted to close her eyes, close her mind, close the part of her that chooses madness, insanity, and breathtaking adventure and shut it all out. So, that was what she did. In the backseat, her head slowly falls to the side and she sleeps. Her chest rises, then descends. She was out cold. It was a rest that was necessary.

A rest that took her to a distant place in her mind. She was walking along a black line. She was balancing along it trying her hardest not to fall over. There was nothing below her but darkness. No knowledge of what lived down there. She looked up to see herself in a fetal position. She was rocking back and forth, as if she was scared. A man appeared. Damon. Covered in fire and emanating smoke. He went to touch Bonnie, a sizzle rose from the touch and Bonnie jumped awake in the car.

Abel and Lola were both staring at her from.

"We're here. At the Salvatore mansion," Abel said. Bonnie looked out of her window and it was true. She was there, and as soon as she walks through the doors she's going to have to tell the gang more bad news. The cycle never ends.


End file.
